Aaron Collins's Suspects Chapter 6
by Psychoflop
Summary: The flashbacks continue, this time in groups of 3


Chapter 6: Flashbacks in Trios

Andrey Iskanov, Catherine Bronnikova and Frau Kaltenbruner - Washington, D.C., USA

Catherine Bronnikova had a smile on her face while Andrey and Frau looked exhausted. "Come on guys, 2 long flights down, 1 short flight to go." This was true for all 3 of them, albeit in somewhat different ways. Andrey and Frau came from the Siberian town of Khabarovsk to Moscow while Catherine took a plane from Belgorod to Moscow. Aaron and Ida arranged for them to meet on the Moscow plane to Washington D.C. with Andrey knowing both yet Catherine and Frau had not talked to each other before. Once they reached North American airspace, Andrey and Frau were content to let Catherine take over the lead as her English was much better. Andrey looked at Frau and said, "We might as well start speaking English too." They walk to the gate and wait to see when the plane comes. Catherine sets her watch back 8 hours to match Eastern Standard Time then tells her 2 new friends, "They will begin boarding in 15 minutes". A pilot overheard her and nods to confirm.

Andrey looks around for a payphone stunned by the unusual archways in Dulles, Frau Points to a bunch of them and hands him a couple of U.S. dollar bills. Andrey taps Catherine on the shoulder and makes the phone call gesture with his hand. Catherine nods and says "I will do the talking, Ida seems to understand my English very well" Catherine mumbles to herself, "1 for area code, then the number" The phone rings and a voice comes on the phone that is unfamiliar to any of the Russians,

"Ida's phone, Lindsay speaking."

"Hey Lindsay is Ida there?"

"She is on her landline with the hotel, is there something that I can help you with?"

"It is Catherine Bronnikova, one of the Russia trio. Can you tell Ida that we are in Washington D.C.?"

"I surely can. You guys should be here in about 3 hours...OH...do you have your instructions once you reach Toronto?"

"Sorry Ms. Collins"

"My name is Lindsay"

"Ok, sorry Lindsay, but no we do not."  
"Knew Ida forgot you Russians. Ok, there is a Canadian customs form to fill out on the plane. When you land in Toronto you go to Canadian customs, then you present it to one of the officers, then you get your bags, get on the train heading for union station. Once you reach Union station there are signs for the P.A.T.H. leading you to the hotel. Questions?"

"No we are good we will be able to do that."

"Very well, I better go, Ida is trying to negotiate discounts for all of you."

"Is she good at it?"

"Yes, she just needs to mention her husband's name...I mean my son."

"Ok good."

"Best of luck to you Catherine."

"Thank you Lindsay."

"You are welcome, bye."

"Bye we will see you at the party."

The pilot from earlier taps Andrey on the arm as Catherine hangs up. " Мы сейчас посадке" (Translation: We are boarding now). Catherine nods and they walk to the boarding dock. The pilot sticks his hand out, implying he wants to see their boarding passes. Frau hands the passes over,

"How did you know Russian?"

The pilot looks at the passes and says "It was an extra course I took in college. Row 2, seats a, b and c" "Thank you."

They walk through a clear glass tunnel, Andrey says "What a small plane"

Catherine responds, "It is a short trip. Only 82 minutes"

They get to the plane, stow their luggage and take their seats.

"I do not think that we will be fed on a flight this short."

"Yes I do not think so either. More room to eat at the hotel."

Frau then speaks up "Sorry Catherine, but how do you know Aaron?"

Catherine unzips her sweater, showing Andrey and Frau a yfe t-shirt. "He and I know Your Favorite Enemies."

Andrey smiles, "Aaron got me into yfe too but I know him differently. So does Frau."

Catherine changes her facial expression to 1 of sadness, "Sometimes I wonder if he would ever be able to watch the bla bla bla thou."

Frau scratches her head in confusion, "Bla bla bla?"

Andrey turns his head to Frau, "It is an interactive chat Yfe runs sometimes" He then returns his attention back to Catherine, "Aaron likes sleeping in on Sundays. Aaron is a fan of my horror movies, I am a director among other things. Frau is one of my actresses."

Catherine nods, "I know Andrey, I saw your movie 'Nails' last week. Brilliant!"

Andrey seemed delighted, "Oh thank you Catherine."

Frau then mumbles, "I wish Aaron would finance 1 of Andrey's movies"

Catherine nodded in sympathy, "That would be nice but I doubt that would ever happen."

Andrey cleared his throat and resumed talking. "His wife does not like scary movies"

Catherine nodded, "He will not even help renovate the yfe church or finance their album. Cheap bastard." Frau then jumped into this conversation, "His wife does not like a lot of stuff, especially scary movies and on the cheap thing you are right Catherine."

Andrey then spoke again, "I wonder if we could get $ for both causes. My movies do not cost much. And how much can an album cost these days?"

Catherine took out a calculator, "It is a lot for this but Aaron used to help."

Frau then suggested, "What if we could get in Aaron's room and steal a few things. Jewellery is popular on the Russian black market. We go for the safe in the room and take the valuables."

Andrey shook his head, "That would be too easy and do not forget Ida always has her jewellery on." Andrey thinks for a moment. "Well Aaron is prone to losing things. Namely keys, he has keys to his bank accounts in Switzerland. He would have his keys in that safe."

Catherine nodded and smiled, "Yes that would be a good thing to get but how are we going to break the code?"

Andrey suggested coldly, "We drill. Most safes have a weak point in the front, Frau can find it with a stethoscope she got for a nurse costume."

Frau and Catherine nodded, yet Catherine spoke, "Ok let us do that if we get this we split everything." "Agreed" spoke Andrey and Frau

Damon Newall, Jen Lemons and Kate Pelisek - Mississauga, Ontario

Kate gets out of her SUV and heads to the go bus platform at square 1 mall. She has a red file folder under her left arm containing biographical info on 2 complete strangers. She reads it over, looking for things that would distinguish them out of the normally crowded bus terminal and then goes to where the two strangers were going to be. She says to herself while reading in detail, "Ok so I am looking for a well-dressed red haired gentleman and an attractive brunette with a penchant for lip piercings"

After a couple of minutes, she spots the gentleman that was dressed nice (and by nice I mean a funereal look fitting the 1860's) so she walks over to him.

"Damon Newall I presume?"

"Yes I am and you must be Kate the Karaoke craft lady."

"Yes I am. Thank you for being easy to find. I have not seen Jen yet. But from what I understand she has the furthest distance to travel."

"She does, I used to live in her neighbourhood. No I never met her by accident. My point being: she might be a little late."

"I understand. Who is that running like she is in a marathon?"

All of a sudden they see a girl running toward the bus terminal. Kate looks at her file folder, "That is Jen alright." She stops, turns off her Ipod and looks around. Kate wants to eliminate as much confusion as possible:

"Over here, Ms. Lemons"

"Oh hi everyone…um, Damon and Kate?"

Damon and Kate as she walks over to the stop. Damon makes an observation: "It is so funny, we are all in the same group of Aaron's friend list but we do not know each other."

Jen then raises her hand, "In point of fact I am one of Aaron's music friends, not CMK."

Damon seems taken aback by his honest mistake. "True."

The go bus pulls up, a bus driver resembling Santa Claus gets out and shouts: "Attention passengers. Let us all line up single file, I will open the luggage compartments for those of you with big suitcases." All three get in line. Damon taps Kate's shoulder "Why did you get a file folder on each of us?" Kate chuckled and replied "Because I have known Aaron the longest." They reach the bus driver who looks at a clipboard, "Damon, Jen and Kate...paid in full, welcome aboard." Jen smiles as all 3 load their luggage into the compartment "Oh thank you. Nice to know Aaron's springing for the transportation was not limited to those who needed a plane or major rail." They take the back row which has more seats (5 in total). Kate then takes out an IPad and boots up Skype, clicking on Ida's account. The skype rang and some one answered:

"Kate?"

"Hey Ida. We just got on the go bus".

"Good but are the other 2 there?"

"Yes I found them quite easily. Damon's top hat in a Canadian crowd was only equalled by Jen running at least part of the trip. Are you already at the hotel?"

"Yes I am. Aaron is sleeping off a migraine. Frankly I am not feeling well myself."

"Get well soon Ida, We will be there in about an hour."

"Oh ok."

"Anyways, we got to logoff now. Wi-fi is not great on a go bus."

"Ok I will talk to guys when you get here."

"Ok, bye."

They got off Skype and they started to talk. Starting with Kate, "I met Aaron at Karaoke. What about you guys?" Damon just mumbled, "Magic: The Gathering" while Jen answered, "At a club. We were there seeing the same band."

Damon makes a snort in derision, "Let me guess, Your Favorite Enemies?"

Jen laughed, "No. A band more local that broke up years ago. Although last I heard, the singer of Ill of Day married her own drummer."

Kate stated in a monotone not normally fitting her voice, "Oh the drummer jokes"

All 3 share a laugh, with Damon's being uneasy. Kate noticing immediately, "Still smarting over Aaron beating you in PTQ: Hamilton in summer 2013, are you?"

Damon looks seriously shocked, "How did you even know about that? You do not even play Magic: The Gathering. Hell, I was semi-retired by that point."

A light bulb goes off in Jen's brain, "Was that the match that essentially settled the guild wars in Ravnica?"

Damon nods, "Yes, I was playing an old school Orzhov Syndicate deck (black/white that uses the graveyard to the spell caster's advantage), and Aaron uses a Gruul clan deck that completely ignored most of the cards made for the Red/Green guild to instead combo Crucible of Worlds off of Borborygmos Enraged."

Kate looks completely lost until Jen translates, "Aaron basically used his own land to light Damon on fire…twice"

Damon grudgingly admits: "He basically strolled to a third world championship. I have wanted to kill him since."

Jen giggles, "I have animosity aimed at Aaron, but not over something so petty. He has a boatload of cash, yet none of it goes to Autism charities. A lot of kids could benefit from him, even if it is just him giving social lessons."

Kate began blushing, "I am afraid that I am guilty of resenting our host as well. But my reasons are more…carnal. See I used to be known as a swinger in my previous relationships, but when I got married to my current husband, I had to give it up at first. But now, he wants to swap me for Ida for a night so Ida sleeps with Mike and I sleep with Aaron. The Aaron I used to know would have jumped at the chance to fuck me. But Ida changed him, Ida made him more…normal. So now I get stuck in a sexless marriage because Aaron actually chose monogamy."

Damon raised his eyebrows at what was such a candid story, Jen merely shrugged. "Ultimately Kate, you and Damon are just 2 people. I am talking about hundreds of people at least…"

Damon then interrupted, "But none of those would likely have gotten the fame and respect I would have received for getting the Orzhov Syndicate over as THE guild in Magic: The Gathering"

The dialogue continued, with each of them attempting to one-up each other, then finally deciding none of them mattered…in order to preserve their own opinion.

Julie Bourke, Megan Hayes and Tamara Costa - San Francisco, California, USA

"Well that was an awkward strip search." stated Megan in annoyance.

"I think it was because I turned down the Homeland security guard when he asked me out in high school." claimed Tamara.

Yes, Tamara was relatively local to San Francisco's airport (about an hour and a half by car). Now in her mid-40's yet could still pass for mid-30's to a casual observer. She had an awkward check-in (travelling light for a multiple week journey caused some alarm), then when she entered customs for international flights, she could not find Julie or Megan (both coming from Sydney; Julie directly and Megan via a train by Canberra). Julie and Megan found her in a ladies room, establishing that their layover was nearly 5 hours (10 minutes longer than what the flight from San Francisco to Toronto would take) so they did a little shopping. Then the line at Homeland Security (plus the unfortunate strip search) ate up time. Tamara looked at her watch, realizing they still had roughly an hour until boarding time.

"We should get a drink to calm down before we get on the plane. And we still need to call Ida." suggested Tamara.

Julie and Megan nodded in agreement, "To be honest Tamara, in our heads it is morning even though it is almost midnight here."

Tamara nodded in understanding as they entered a bar called Al's Place. There was no host to assign them a table, so they took 3 stools at the bar. An older bartender walked up to them, "What will it be, ladies?"

Megan went first: "English breakfast Tea"

Julie smiled, "Mocha"

Tamara used more imagination, "I will have a vodka and cranberry juice."

The bartender smiled, nodded and said, "Right away". Tamara then took out her cell phone, searched her directory for Ida's new Canadian phone number. Julie and Megan stared at her in confusion before Tamara said, "I would rather call now than when the roaming charges murder my wallet". A dial tone was heard by all 3 oddly enough, before a small voice was heard.

"Good afternoon, Ida speaking."

"Julie, Megan and I are at the airport bar near our gate."

"Oh good, you found them Tamara. I hope it was not too much of a hassle."

"Oh it was, one of us will explain when we get to the Fairmont Royal York. So, how direct of a train is it from the airport to Union?"

"Let me see, it goes: Airport to Weston Go Station to Bloor-Yonge Subway Station to Union. So literally 3 stops. Aaron told me it was 45 minutes, but it can be done in 30 I think."

"Well with our flight, Canadian customs and baggage it will be at least 6 hours before we get there."

"Ok, I have to go, my other line is beeping with a number from somewhere in Asia."

"Fair enough, our drinks just arrived anyway."

"Great, see you 3 tonight."

"Bye"

"Bye now"

They hung up and Tamara began stirring her drink. Julie raised her glass, "A toast"

Megan and Tamara raised their glasses, with Megan speaking "To Aaron and Ida, without whom, this epic birthday party would not be possible"

All 3 unanimously declared, "Cheers"

But with Julie, there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice. And the others caught her in the act, "Oh come on Julie, those 2 dropped more money on this party than the 3 of us will ever see."

Julie was quick to respond, "Yes, he spent money on a hotel known more in recent years for its' 'historical significance' than for actual luxury. Than he gets catering from a restaurant that has no item on the menu over $10 WITH A DISCOUNT ON TOP OF THAT because he is friends with the owner. Even in their extravagance, Ida and Aaron Collins are thrifty. My medical bills back home are quite high, yet Aaron will not even offer to pay them off. Hell, even half would be more than fine."

Tamara was sympathetic, "If it is any consolation, Aaron has not offered for my kids either. I do not even care about my own medical needs. My will is set either way so if something happens to me, fine. But my kids medical history puts even AARON'S to shame."

Megan was conflicted, "I have no problems medically but not too long ago, the band Aaron and I met through, Temujin, well the band founder Karl entered into a business venture with Aaron. Karl confided to me that if the deal goes through, him, his wife, his entire family is out on the streets of Melbourne."

A voice came over the airport's P.A. system, "Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please? Would all first class passengers for Air Canada's non-stop flight to Toronto please begin boarding?" Julie, Megan and Tamara chugged down their drinks (which lead to shock from the Aussies as Tamara the American's drink had alcohol in it.) Luckily, it was a walk of only a few metres as the 3 ladies showed their boarding passes. A young man named Alex escorted them to the third row of a Boeing 767, as they were stowing their luggage in the overhead compartment, Megan asked the other 2. "I think I will ask on behalf of all of us for money as I have known Aaron the longest. Plus, if he says no I can look up what Australian corporate laws he is circumventing in his deal with Karl."

Julie and Tamara nodded, then waved their hands over their faces, because in the excitement of their own greed, Megan farted.


End file.
